Mordecai (Esther's relative living at the time of Exile and Return)

Esther's cousin and guardian, the one who refuses to bow to Haman and sets the whole plot in motion (Esther 2:5, 3:2). Josephus's retelling of the book keeps him right where Scripture does, second billing to Esther, first cause of everything that happens to her.

Mordecai was a Benjamite in the Persian capital of Susa who raised his orphaned cousin Esther as his own daughter and later uncovered a plot to assassinate King Ahasuerus, a service the king had forgotten until a sleepless night sent him back through the royal records. That rediscovery reversed Mordecai's fortunes overnight: the same day his enemy Haman had built a gallows for him, Mordecai was paraded through the city in the king's own robes, and he was later elevated to the second-highest position in the empire.